Leonard Merrick, whose work is filled with clever studies in literary and stage life, has a good deal to say in irenic criticise of the commercial side of literature. One of his studies is that of a young writer who produced a work of distinction, praised in high places but a failure financially, while his next work—a more ambitious effort—actually failed to find a publisher: for lack of virtue as a "'best seller," not quality. The disappointed writer turned to fiction for the million, undertaking hack work for a successful lady novelist, and had the mortification of seeing his' own fourth rate work sold at a high price as fast as he was able to produce it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.